WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Two human rights groups say Trump administration sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court over its investigations of Israel’s have illegally impeded their ability to advocate for Palestinians.
The organizations say in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that they have been forced to censor their own advocacy work to avoid scrutiny from the White House, which in an executive order last year not only but prohibited providing or receiving services to or from entities that have been sanctioned.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against top administration officials by DAWN and Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide, seeks a court order that would strike down the restrictions on their advocacy and their ability to interact with Palestinian human rights groups and other sanctioned parties.
鈥淭he Trump administration is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expressions of millions of Americans,鈥� said Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, a U.S.-based group advocating for democracy and human rights in the Arab world that was founded by Washington Post journalist , who was killed in 2018.
鈥淭he government is violating the constitutional rights of American citizens in order to shield officials of a foreign government who have committed a genocide,” he said in a statement.
The White House did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.
The Hague-based ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Gaza during the war that began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A panel of judges issued in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu has called the warrants 鈥渁bsurd.鈥�
The U.S. and Israel are not among the court鈥檚 members, and neither nation recognizes its authority.
In response to the arrest warrants, President Donald Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order last year that accused the ICC of engaging in 鈥渋llegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel鈥� and warned of 鈥渢angible and significant consequences鈥� on those responsible for the ICC鈥檚 鈥渢ransgressions.鈥�
The U.S. over the last year has slapped sanctions on Palestinian human rights groups, 鈥� including the court鈥檚 former chief prosecutor 鈥� and Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza. in February, saying the penalties violated the First Amendment.
Already, the lawsuit says, DAWN has halted work on submissions to the ICC about Israel鈥檚 conduct during the war, stopped exchanging evidence and legal analysis with sanctioned non-government organizations and abstained from collaborating with them on advocacy campaigns. It has also been forced to 鈥渄iscontinue its professional engagements with Albanese.鈥�
鈥淭he chilling effect on Plaintiffs has been profound,鈥� the lawsuit states. 鈥淭hey now face prison terms and ruinous fines if, in their interactions with the designated parties, they provide or receive anything that Defendants could plausibly characterize as a 鈥榮ervice鈥欌�� an extraordinarily capacious term that potentially reaches any act that confers a benefit on its recipient. Fearing liability, Plaintiffs 鈥� and countless others like them 鈥攈ave turned to self-censorship.鈥�
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is among the defendants in the lawsuit, denounced the court as recently as this week, pledging in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that Trump’s administration would 鈥渄ismantle the ICC 鈥� brick by brick, if necessary.鈥� He warned that the court’s 鈥渙verreach,鈥� if left unchecked, could subject Border Patrol agents, federal prosecutors and U.S. Marines to the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
鈥淭he ICC鈥檚 interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn鈥檛 only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation,鈥� Rubio wrote. 鈥淥ur decision and our people would be at the mercy of the ICC and its collaborators in the ‘international community.’ To accept the ICC is to surrender control of our national destiny.鈥�
The State Department said the campaign against the court could include additional sanctions or visa revocations and travel bans for ICC employees as well as 鈥渋ncreased scrutiny鈥� of nations that don’t reject ICC authority.
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